Obama touts tech agenda in Oregon

HILLSBORO, Ore. ---- President Barack Obama paid a quick West
Coast sales call for his education and high-tech agenda, dining
with industry royalty at a private meeting in Silicon Valley before
touring a state-of-the-art semiconductor plant in Oregon.

After visiting with a group of science fair students and peering
at the image of atoms seen through an electron magnoscope, Obama
renewed the theme sounded in his State of the Union address, with a
nod toward his recent focus on deficit reduction.

"Even as we have to live within our means, we can't sacrifice
investments in our future," Obama told several hundred guests and
employees gathered at Intel Corp.'s suburban Portland, Ore., campus
Friday. "If we want the next technological breakthrough that leads
to the next Intel to happen here in the United States ---- not in
China, not in Germany ---- then we have to invest in America's
research and technology, in the work of our scientists and
engineers."

Obama has pushed for increased spending on education, high-speed
Internet, high-speed rail and green technologies ---- even as other
federal programs are slashed or frozen ---- as a way to create jobs
and better position the U.S. for competition in an increasingly
globalized economy. Republicans call "investment" a euphemism for
expanding the size and heft of government and have called for
drastic budget cuts.

Obama found a friendly audience in Oregon, a Democratic
stronghold, and an unlikely host in Intel Chief Executive Paul
Otellini, who contributed to Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John
McCain of Arizona, in 2008 and has been critical of the president's
economic and health care policies.

The relationship has thawed as Obama endorsed an extension of
the research and development tax credit ---- a legislative priority
for Intel and other tech firms ---- and taken other steps to reach
out to business leaders. On Friday, Obama named Otellini to his
Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, an economic advisory
group.

Otellini, for his part, announced after the tour that Intel
would build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in the Phoenix
suburb of Chandler. The Arizona facility will create thousands of
new jobs and will be the most advanced high-volume semiconductor
factory in the world, he said.

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